Adult Teeth

by Jeremy T. Wilson

A suburban lawyer obsessively searches for her out-of-work husband’s sex doll; a grieving man buys a parrot for the stranger who saved his life; a retired Florida lineman discovers a power more vital than electricity. In his debut collection Adult Teeth, award-winning short story writer Jeremy T. Wilson skillfully presents a cast of compelling characters who grapple with life’s big marriage, friendship, parenthood, death. With heartbreak and humor, these twelve stories explore the brutal truth that for all these characters, as for all of us, time is lying in wait, ready to punch us in the mouth.

Genres: Short Stories

244 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2018

About the author

Jeremy T. Wilson is a former winner of the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren Award for short fiction. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in literary magazines such as The Carolina Quarterly, The Florida Review, Hobart, Sonora Review, Third Coast and other publications. He holds an MFA from Northwestern University and teaches creative writing at The Chicago High School for the Arts. He lives in Evanston, Illinois with his wife and daughter.

Reviews

[Kyle Feuerbach · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best short story collections that I have read. The stories vary from one another, but one thing that is constant throughout is the author’s smooth delivery. Nothing feels forced or drawn out.

Each story is delivered with the ease of an old timer telling stories on the screened in front porch under the protection of mosquito lamps.

This is a collection that I will revisit again and again. I highly recommend it.

[Darrin Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart, funny, original collection here. Not a weak story in the bunch -- highly recommend.

[Hannah Sward · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best short story collections I have read! Highly recommend!

[Rachel Swearingen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the stories in Adult Teeth are so entertaining that I was initially surprised by my growing sense of unease as I read. Wilson has such a keen eye and sense of irony. I especially enjoyed "Rapture" and "Adult Teeth," but there isn't a dull story in the book. Several of the stories and the characters have stayed with me, and I keep thinking about the brother and sister in "Everything is Going to Be OK." I love how small town Texas and Chicago come together in this story, and the descriptions of Julie, the sister who shows up in the city without warning with her big hair and painted nails, who has to borrow her pregnant sister-in-law's clothes to play tennis and then keeps singing lines from Jimmy Buffet. The story is funny and believable, and yet also inexplicably sad. The men in these stories are often baffled and fascinated by the people in their lives, and there's a sense that they are trying to hold onto things that they know are slipping away. These lines from the title story could be an epigraph for the book as a whole: "I sit in the glider and listen to the bellows, the chirp and warble of these giant beasts, their keening cries communicating something ineffable, and as I do, I wonder how in the world this sound is supposed to be soothing to anyone, much less a baby alone in the dark."